During
the
1800s, the U.S. government forcibly relocated Indian
tribes from all over the country into the area known
as Oklahoma Territory. The Indians' desire to keep the
Territory for their exclusive use and occupation was
complicated by the rapid growth of white population on
its northern, eastern, and southern borders; and when
the first railroad crossed it (1870-72), any effort to
find an answer became hopeless. As other railroads
built into, and across, the Territory, white men came
in to lay out towns and open farms, some as employees
or tenants of the Indians, others as plain intruders.
In 1890, when the first Federal census was made of the
Five Civilized Tribes, there was a population of
109,393 whites and 18,636 Negroes, as compared with a
total of 50,055 Indians.

These
noncitizens,
outside the authority of the Indian governments, were
without civil law, and in criminal matters they were
under the long distance jurisdiction of the Federal
court at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Their towns were built
upon lands to which they could obtain no title, and
their children were denied access to tribal schools;
as a result, they were eager for the extinguishment of
the Indian land tenure and the creation of a
government in which they could participate.

White
cattlemen,
too, coveted the lush ranges of the Indians. After the
Civil War, cowboys began their history on the Texas
plains. Texas ranchers found they had large supplies
of beef with no place to sell it. The East Coast
needed beef. To meet that demand, Texas ranchers had
to move their cattle to the closest railroads, which
were in Kansas. While travelling through Oklahoma, the
ranchers realized the territory was not only closer to
the railroads, but a good location for raising cattle
as well.

Between
five
and six million longhorns were driven along such
trails as the Western, the Chisholm, the East Shawnee,
and the West Shawnee. Recognizing the lush grasslands
could serve them well, Texas cattle-owners sought to
secure grazing rights, either leasing great areas from
tribal authorities or arranging sham "sales" to
citizens of the Territory, then hiring themselves and
their cowboys to the Indian "owners" to care for and
market the cattle. By the 1870s, white men began to
demand a place in Oklahoma for their own settlement.

Looking
over
the border at this cattleman's "fair and happy land,"
white farmers of Kansas, Missouri, and sections even
more remote began the long-continued agitation for
throwing open for settlement of the fertile acres
which were not used and occupied by their Indian
owners. Bills were repeatedly introduced in Congress
for the liquidation of tribal governments, allotment
of reservation land held in common, and making the
surplus land available for homesteading.

Beginning
in
1879, extensive publicity was given to the fact that
no Indian tribes had ever been settled on a tract in
the heart of the Indian Territory ceded by the Creeks
and Seminoles at the close of the Civil War, and
newspapers throughout the West contended that these
"Unassigned Lands" -- soon to be popularly designated
as "Oklahoma Lands" -- were subject to homestead
entry.

Homeseekers
known
as
"Boomers" gathered at the Kansas border and made
repeated and systematic attempts to colonize this
tract, but the Federal government, holding that the
land had been ceded only for Indian occupation,
removed the invaders. In 1879 and 1880, President
Rutherford B. Hayes forbade white settlement in the
territory. They returned in increasing numbers.
Cattlemen came in without legal sanction, divided the
range, built fences and corrals, and grazed their
cattle over its rich prairies. In 1886-87, the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was built
across the region, and stations were established along
its right of way.

There
were
still large amounts of unused land available, on which
white men wanted to settle, and people urged the
government to open the lands. In 1885, Congress gave
the President permission to begin dealing with the
Creek and Seminole tribes to open the vacant land to
white people.

Finally
the
United States purchased title to the land, and on
March 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed
legislation that opened up the "Unassigned Lands" --
embracing almost 3,000,000 acres lying in the heart of
the territory -- from the Creeks and Seminoles. The
tract was laid out in 160-acre homesteads, and on
April 22, 1889, it was opened to white settlement in
the "Run" for farms and town lots, which has become
one of the most dramatized episodes in western
history.

As
the hour for the opening approached, great crowds
waited on the border, while mounted soldiers stood on
guard to turn back intruders. At noon bugles sounded,
then guns were fired as a signal that the land was
open. Men raced in on horseback, on foot, in covered
wagons, hanging to every available hold on the slowly
moving trains, all trying to outstrip their fellow
"Boomers" in the scramble for "claims." When a
homeseeker found a tract of land to his liking, he
drove a stake as evidence of possession and held it as
best he could against other claimants. On the same day
lots were staked in the townsites, and men engaged in
feverish promotion.

Tents
appeared
everywhere. By the end of the day, Oklahoma City was a
city of about 10,000 tent and wagon dwellers, and
other cities had sprouted on the prairie: Kingfisher,
El Reno, Norman, Guthrie, and Stillwater. Many of the
streets were marked. Within hours, the new town had a
mayor and city council, elected before The Run, in
many cases. Flickering camp fires dotted the prairie
as far as one could see, in all directions. Also,
hundreds of broken rigs littered the plains that
night. Many an 89er did not live to see the end of the
day he had been so anxious to begin.

Some
children set up their own business outside the land
office: selling creek water for 5 cents a cup to
homesteaders who were waiting to file. Other children
gathered buffalo chips to provide fuel for their
mothers' cooking fires.

Dentists,
doctors,
and lawyers immediately hung their shingles on their
wagon or tent. Merchants brought merchandise in their
wagons to start a store in a new town. Stores opened
in the backs of wagons, then moved to a tent after a
day or two, until a building was ready. Building
material came in the wagons, too, or shipped by train.
Complete buildings were unloaded, with the lumber cut,
notched, and ready to be nailed.

Schools
opened
in tents the following week. Most were taught by
volunteers who were paid by the pupils' parents until
the cities and counties could establish regular school
districts. Part of the land in each township had been
reserved by law for school use.

The
weeks following that first Run of homesteaders were
busy ones on this newest of American frontiers. Within
a month, Oklahoma City had five banks and six
newspapers. Hotels were opened, and by summer,
greengrocers were doing a thriving business. In
Oklahoma City, fresh tomatoes sold for 15 cents a
bushel, eggs at 3 cents a dozen, and home-churned
butter for 6 cents a pound. Some of the most
substantial business firms in Oklahoma point to this
time as the date of their founding.

For
thirteen months, the settlers were without any
organized government, yet good order prevailed.
Frontier living conditions were too rigorous -- and
money was too scarce -- to attract outlaws. The only
government during this period was that created and
maintained by common consent. In May, 1890, Congress
passed the Organic Act, providing for a territorial
government, with executive and judicial officers
appointed by the President, and a legislature to be
elected by the people. The active new town of Guthrie
was designated as the capital, and in spite of the
bitter rivalry of its ambitious neighbor, Oklahoma
City, it remained the seat of government throughout
the territorial period.

Hello,
my name is LaRae Halsey Brooks, and as you can see, I
have a particular interest in collecting and
preserving personal accounts of life in the Oklahoma
Territory.

All
four of my grandparents spent some of their growing-up
years in the central counties of pre-statehood
Oklahoma, and I was fortunate to grow up hearing their
tales of pioneer life on the prairies.

If
your family lived in the six counties of the
Unassigned Lands prior to or immediately following
April 22, 1889, and you have stories, letters,
photographs, or other information pertaining to their
experiences, please consider sharing them with others
interested in preserving these personal histories. Use
the Share Your Family
Stories section to enter your posts.

Please
be sure to include your relationship to the persons
mentioned, as well as known names, dates, and
locations.

Downloadable -- 35
FREE electronic spreadsheets for archiving
federal, state and international census
data. The spreadsheets provide a way
of electronically organizing, preserving
and sharing census extractions. They are
offered as shareware by Gary Minder at
Censustools.com.